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Cavaliers Travel to James Madison Tuesday
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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The Virginia baseball team visits James Madison Tuesday afternoon to take on the Dukes at Eagle Field at Veterans Memorial Park. First pitch is at 4 p.m.
Live audio of the game will be available on VirginiaSports.com through Cavaliers Live (subscription required). VirginiaSports.com also will have a link to the JMU live video webcast (subscription required). Live statistics will be available at VirginiaSports.com as well.
The scheduled starting pitching matchup: UVa RHP Artie Lewicki (So., Wyckoff, N.J.) against JMU LHP Aaron Hoover. The Cavaliers and Dukes already have faced off once this season, as the teams played to a 4-4 tie on Feb. 18 in Myrtle Beach. The game was played in a steady rain for the final four innings before it was called after eight innings.
Virginia (6-4-1) looks to bounce back from a 1-2 weekend at home. The Cavaliers started the weekend on a good note with a 10-4 win over Seton Hall before falling 5-4 to Wright State and 5-2 to Seton Hall.
The Cavaliers jumped to early leads in both losses, only to see their opponents move ahead in the fifth inning in each instance. UVa left the bases loaded in the ninth inning in its rally attempt against Wright State and brought the tying run to the plate in the ninth against Seton Hall.
UVa leadoff hitter Chris Taylor (Jr., Virginia Beach, Va.) hit .545 (6-for-11) and scored five runs over the course of the three weekend games. Mike Papi (Fr., Tunkhannock, Pa.) was 4-for-8 with four RBI, while Jared King (Sr., Radford, Va.) was 4-for-11 (.364) with four RBI in the three-game stretch.
King continues to lead the Cavaliers with a .429 batting average. Reed Gragnani (Jr., Richmond, Va.) is hitting at a .367 clip. UVa is batting .302 and owns a 2.52 earned run average as a team.
JMU (5-5-1) swept Lafayette in a three-game series over the weekend in Harrisonburg. Ty McFarland leads the team with a .432 batting average, while Bradley Shaban has a .394 average as well as a team-high 15 RBI. The Dukes are hitting .314 as a team, while their pitchers own a 6.55 team ERA.
Virginia is 34-25-1 in its series with James Madison. Prior to the teams’ tie this year, the Cavaliers had won the last three meetings with JMU and 10 of the last 11. UVa last played at JMU on March 17, 2010, a 6-3 Cavalier win. JMU’s last win in the series was a 7-6, 14-inning victory on April 25, 2007, at Davenport Field. The teams have one more scheduled contest this year – April 4 in Charlottesville.
Virginia comes home Friday to start ACC play. The Cavaliers will battle Virginia Tech in a three-game weekend series, which also marks the earliest ACC home games in UVa baseball history. The series commences at 5 p.m. Friday and continues at 1 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.